Resident Evil: Dark Secrets
by LordGolbez
Summary: John is trying to make it out of Raccoon City alive and in one piece. Will he be able to escape the city? Who will he meet along the way and will he let them get close enough to learn about his past? Rated M For Language And Violence. Please R&R. OC
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

_Author's Notes: I Do Not Own Any Documents That Appear In This Story That Also Appear In The Games. The Same Holds True For Any Of The Characters From The Games. They Are The Properties Of Capcom. The Main Character And Other Smaller Fill-In Characters Are Of My Own Creation. This Is Also My First Attempt At A Fan Fiction So Please Be Kind And I Will Gladly Accept Any Constructive Reviews And Criticism. I Am Usually Going In And Doing Re-Edits And Adding A Few Things I May Have Forgotten On My First Time Though So It Pays Every Once In Awhile To Read A Part Again. Please Rate And Review Otherwise I Won't Know If I Am Doing A Halfway Decent Job And Should Continue._

The alarm started beeping loudly and the form in the bed reached over and silenced the alarm quickly.

"Ugh eight o'clock, time to get up already. Just another ten minutes." After the time limit was up the annoyance started to beep again and the hand finally reached over and hit the alarm button.

"Okay, okay. I'm up." He sat up in bed, rubbed his eyes and ran his hands though his short brown hair. "Damn, another nightmare." He said as threw the thin red blanket covering him over to the otherside of the bed and got up. He walked to the bathroom, turned on the light and got in the shower hoping that the hot water would rouse his spirits.

After getting out of the shower he shaved his face, went to his bedroom and put on a pair of shorts and walked to the computer and stopped the playlist of soothing classical music that helped him sleep at night. He walked to his bed and made it up after which he picked up a quarter that he had left on his nightstand and flipped on the bed. The quarter bounced in the air, satisfied he grabbed the coin off of the bed and put it back on the stand.

He walked to the door that led out of his small apartment. He knelt down and picked up the paper. As he stood back up he noticed his neighbor from the apartment next to his admiring his muscular frame and his black dragon tattoo which was hard to miss since it's head rested on his left shoulder and wrapped around his body down to his right leg.

He nodded and went back inside. His neighbor was a pretty woman about twenty-five he judged, just a few years younger than himself, but he had never formally met her because he had never introduced himself much less asked her name. He noticed that she had a black-eye and it looked fairly recent which she tried to hide with her long blonde locks as soon as she noticed that he had seen it. He had heard her fighting with her boyfriend many a late night and thought it was a shame that the boy couldn't stay sober long enough to realize what he had.

He went to the kitchen and fixed breakfast. After eating his sausage, eggs and toast he opened the paper and on the front page and looked at the date near the top, September 24, 1998. The headline read that another massacre had happened last night. This time the paper said that there was about ten bodies. The story also mentioned that from current evidence it looked like the bodies had been partially eaten. He set the paper down, finished off the orange juice left in the glass and took his dishes to the kitchen.

"Hmm, I hope they catch these people soon." he thought to himself as he walked back to the living room turned on the television and started to briefly watch an old black and white show before going to the bedroom and getting ready for work. He walked to his closet and got out a pair of blue jeans, a grey short sleeve polo and his black leather belt.

He walked to his dresser, got a pair of white socks out of the top drawer and a pair of black boxers out of the second. He went to the bed and took off the pair of shorts he had put on earlier and folded them up and set them on the end of the bed and put on the socks, boxers, jeans and shirt. He tucked in the shirt and put on the belt. He picked up his wallet and keys off of the night stand and put them in his pocket. He reached under the bed and got his short black ankle boots, put them on and tied them. After making sure that everything was in order he walked to the front door and turned out the lights.

He walked out of his door and locked it behind him. He walked along the halls of the building noticing that everyone in the building seemed on edge, which really was the case for the whole city since the strange killings had started just a few weeks ago. There were some pretty crazy theories floating around like maybe it was a huge conspiracy to run everyone out of town or a group of cannibalistic serial killers. He opened the door leading to the stairwell and walked down six floors to the bottom. Just as he was about to walk out of the main door he heard a shrill voice and knew in an instant who it was and what she wanted.

"Mr. Harrison, Mr. John Harrison. You stop right there!" She yelled.

John turned to face her. Looking at her walk toward him, she reminded him of an imp. She had black curly hair and it enveloped her ears. She walked up to him and started poking him in the chest. He was still surprised she could extend her arm up that far. He just watched her mouth move at almost lighting speed and didn't even bother hear any of the words or comments she was spewing.

John began to speak after she finished. "Yes Ms. Dandy, I will have the rent this evening because I get paid today. I thought we had already discussed this before." He said.

"Well Mr. Harrison things change and I decided that I want my rent a week early." She stated in a tone becoming her manner.

"Don't worry, I will have you your money this evening. I will stop by first thing." He said as he walked out the door and onto Fox Street.

He started walking south and stopped at the intersection of Fox and Parade Boulevard. He pressed the button to allow pedestrians to cross the street. He waited for about five minutes before it changed and he was starting to get impatient, then the light dinged signaling it was time to cross and John did so quickly. After he walked to the otherside of the boulevard, he continued walking south along Fox and finally got to his destination, The Raccoon City Public Library.

It was an impressive building that was inspired by Greek architecture as it had eight columns along the front of the building. He walked up the steps and though one of the sets of silver colored revolving doors. John walked behind the checkout desk, reached in his pocket and retrieved his wallet and opened it. He produced a small blue keycard and slid it though the reader by the door that said "Employees Only". He walked into what was the storage and sorting room for the library. He continued to the back of the room to the time-clock on the wall, slid his card, punched his number in and went to a cart with a large stack of unsorted books.

"Yep there's a lot of books today". Said a voice from someone a few steps behind John.

He looked to the side to see who it was and said "Good morning Jeff."

Jeff was about five foot eight inches and had curly light red hair. You could tell from looking at him he was one of those types that could make a friend easily and smiled a lot.

Jeff walked up to John and said "Good morning to you as well." Before Jeff could say anymore John started pushing the cart to go and put the books in their proper places.

"I wish people could show a greater respect for books" He said back to Jeff.

"I know but they take what they want and don't think anymore about it." Jeff said as John walked out of sight.

After work as John walked home he noticed that the streets seemed oddly silent and not the usual hustle and bustle of a normal day. He just passed it off on the city's edginess. He made it home and the first person waiting on him was his landlady. He placed the money in her hand and walked on by without a word.

He unlocked the door and walked inside, locking the door behind him. The first thing that John did was go to his bedroom and get undressed and take a shower after the long work day.

"Slave to the grind huh. Never thought I would be here ten years ago." He laughed as the hot water ran over his head.

After getting out of the shower and putting the pair of shorts he had set on the bed earlier that morning and picked up his dirty clothes and emptied the contents on to his nightstand, hung his belt on the headboard of his bed and put everything into his hamper to be washed. He then went to the kitchen and started to fix dinner. He enjoyed his steak thoroughly and the mashed potatoes and rolls complimented it well. After washing the dishes John walked to the bookcase and choose a book, sat down in his recliner and tried to get some peace and quiet before having to deal with his landlady again tomorrow.

"God, I have to get a new place. That old bat is really starting to get on my nerves. Oh well maybe I can finish this book tonight and look in the paper tomorrow." He started to read a book about the British Empire when they first started to advance in to Ireland and impose rule.

Just as he got started he heard screaming outside in the hall and he had become quite irritated at this.

"Can't you two just shut the hell up for once. You two argue every damn night can't I just get one night of peace." Then the screaming stopped suddenly and John thought that maybe they listened for once and continued reading.

After a few minutes of silence he heard rustling outside of his door. Whoever it was started knocking incessantly and then started moaning.

"Who is it?" He asked but the only reply he heard was the moaning sound becoming more frequent.

Again he asked "Who is it?" But this time whoever it was started banging on the door.

The banging became more furious and John got up and started to ready himself for whoever was on the other side of the door. The door finally gave way and John was surprised by the sight of his neighbor with her blonde hair red with blood. Her looked her up and down. She had a large chunk of her neck missing with blood still trying to flow from the wound and bites were missing out of her arms.

"Holy shit, stay back I don't want to hurt you worse than you are. Let me call 911." She just kept coming with a dead look in her eyes completely unresponsive to John.

"What are you doing? I will hurt you if I have to, don't make me." She proceeded to grab John and tried to bite him.

"Okay you asked for it bitch." He pushed her back and swept her feet out from under her and pinned her down but she was putting up quite a fight despite missing a large chunk of her neck.

He judged that she could not be more than one-hundred fifty pounds five foot four inches at the most while John was easily two-hundred pounds and six feet but still she proved to be a challenge for even him. She was slightly difficult to maneuver around because every time he put his hands on her she tried to bite him.

It was difficult but he remembered that he was trying not to hurt her. He was trying to talk to her when another shadow darkened his doorway. John looked up to see her boyfriend in the same condition as she. The boyfriend's shaved head had bloody handprints all over it and was missing a large portion of the left side of his face. The man's maw was dripping with blood, presumably from his girlfriend, and his both of his arms had large chunks missing from them. His black wife beater was ripped to shreds and his intestines were hanging halfway out of his body. John quickly rolled backwards and readied himself for another assault. Just then a thought came to his head and he fell back to his bedroom.

"Fuck this shit." He said as he threw open the door the slated sliding door to his closet, knocking it off track, got a long case out of the top his closet, threw it on the bed and quickly opened up the latches to reveal a four foot shiny silver longsword. He grabbed the gold trimmed grip and waited for the couple to enter his room. They slowly turned the corner and sped up as they saw their meal and with two quick swipes decapitated the couple as they got within range.

"What the hell is going on?" He thought as he looked down at their bodies.

As John looked down at his sword and the bodies he noticed that mixed in with the flowing blood there blobs of blood that was coagulated and, remembering what he had once read in a medical textbook, he knew that blood did not do that until after one was deceased. He walked over to the telephone and all he heard was a disconnect signal. He then turned on the television and all he saw was static.

"What is going on? There is no way that the dead got up and started walking around, and the phones and television being out as well does not mean good news." John told himself as he went to his closet and went all the way to the left side of it moving everything in the way and got out pair of black BDU pants and combat belt that was on the same hanger. He looked in the same corner at the bottom of the closet and picked up a long pair of combat boots and a black sheath for his longsword.

"I may not know what is going on but if there are more of those things I am not going to wait here for them to come and get me." He threw everything on his bed and walked to his dresser and went straight to the bottom of the top drawer and pulled out a long pair of black padded socks. He opened his second drawer again and got out another pair of black boxers. He also opened his third drawer down and got out a black t-shirt. He walked beside his bed and took off the shorts once more and put on the socks, boxers and pants. He put on the shirt, tucked it in and reached for the belt, ran it though the loops, buckled it and ran the straps of the sheath behind his belt on his right side and buttoned it. He finally put on the boots laced them up tightly.

Before putting on his combat belt he looked in the large black pouch on the back and took stock of the first aid gear he had. Inside was a tourniquet and gauze to stop bleeding, two burn dressings to treat burns and a hard case with needles, syringes and alcohol pads inside. Satisfied he put on the belt and secured it. He moved around making sure that his movements would be unhindered.

He reached into his bedside table and got out his custom .357 Magnum revolver and his extra rounds. This Magnum was custom in the fact that the cylinder had eight chambers instead of the usual six. It also had an eight inch barrel and a solid black finish with a wooden grip.

After making sure it was loaded and storing his extra ammo in one of the pouches on his belt he went to find a rag to wipe the congealed blood off of his sword. He managed to find an old red dust cloth and proceeded to clean his sword and ran his fingers across the inscription on the base of the blade. "To Our Brother Golbez."

In one of the rare moments he showed emotion a look of remorse crossed his face. "I had hoped to never use these again." He said with a tinge of sorrow.

Just then lightning flashed and John noticed it was raining so hard it could have almost resembled a typhoon. He slid the weapon back into his sheath, slid his magnum into the holster on the left side of his belt, grabbed a flashlight and a raincoat from the closet making sure the light was in good working order and put it in the ring on his belt. He walked back to his nightstand and reached in the drawer and got out and pair of dog tags and a dragon medallion that was Celtic in design. He put them around his neck underneath his shirt and proceeded out of his apartment.

He managed to make it down a couple of floors without seeing anyone. As he was about to go down another floor he came upon an shoddy barricade that looked like it was made of a loveseat and a bunch of junk stuffed underneath it. He started to open the door to hallway hoping to get down the other stairwell then stopped and listened. He heard the shuffling of feet outside. He drew his gun and peeked out of the door to see one of the creatures stumbling around. After his previous encounter he had an idea that destroying the brain or separating the head from the body would stop it fairly efficiently. He aimed and took the shot and he turned out to be right.

"Hmm I guess you never forget how to do some things. That's good I only have so many shots and I don't know how many there are." John thought to himself.

He kept his gun drawn just in case there were more. As he made his way down the hall to the next set of steps there was blood everywhere.

"Jesus, how did this all happen so quickly?" He thought to himself. He looked into one of the open doors and saw that these monsters did not feed based on age or gender. He destroyed the zombie and continued on. As he looked down the opposite stairwell there was no such blockage and continued down. As he stepped onto the final floor and out of the stairwell into the lobby, he saw the body of his landlady stumbling around with bites on her arms and neck.

"I may not have liked you very much but I will not leave you to a fate like this." He put her to rest with a shot the head. He holstered his gun, put on his raincoat and stepped out into the rain hoping to find more survivors than zombies but given with what he had seen in such a short time that did not seem likely.

John left his apartment building and started walking down the street keeping aware of his surroundings. He saw that none of the cars on the street had been disturbed.

"Well first things first I guess I need to try to get out of the city." John chose a brown station wagon nearby and pulled the handle.

"Hmm locked I am sure the owner will not mind given the situation that is if they are around to mind of course". He said as he took the pommel of his sword and broke the window. He opened the door, cleared out the broken glass, set his sword in the passenger seat and rummaged around in the car to see if the keys were in it.

"No keys, okay more than one way to start a car." He thought. He looked around to make sure it was clear, moved the sword to the floorboard, laid in the seat and started to hot-wire the car.

The car started easy enough but as he started to get up something grabbed his leg from under the car. "Aah damn zombie". He kicked it in the forehead. As the creature's head moved forward to try to bite again, it's eye met with the sword and John promptly kicked the head off of the sword.

"Ok time to leave". He said as he sat up, shut the door, laid his sword back in the seat beside him and put the vehicle into gear. He started to drive to south on Fox toward the closest exit that would take him out of the city. Once he reached the end of Fox turned left on into a side street and kept driving past the first intersection and stopped at the next one. He looked to the right to see a convenience store. Outside of the store there were four of the undead feeding on helpless bodies while the inside of the store had bloody hand streaks down the widows.

"Well this city has gone to hell literally." He thought as he turned right and headed further south. He kept driving as the road turned back in a west-bound direction and stopped at the next turnoff and headed south. As he started to approach the city limits he saw lights in the middle of the road. As he got closer to the lights he saw that whoever it was was entrenched between two hills so as to prevent cars from driving around them. He also observed lights up in the hills.

"Probably patrols searching for people." He thought to himself. As he got even closer to the lights he could make out that they were about ten to twelve cars off to the side of the road but didn't see any signs of survivors, then people wearing military uniforms got into position in the middle of the road and they had their rifles aimed at the car. Without warning they started firing upon the car and John quickly put the car in reverse, spun the car in the other direction and drove back into the city.

"Dammit this is really bad if they are willing to seal the city off". He looked in the rearview mirror and saw that they weren't going to give chase."So not only do I have the dead trying to eat me but I have people to worry about now too and it's not just people, it's the fucking military. Wonderful."

"So those cars were the people that were unlucky and thought that the government was going to help them. I could try the woods but they had patrols and I know that I can't take on that many soldiers at once, so that means I will have to find another way out of the city." John thought to himself as he drove back into the city of the dead.

"Well more than likely the rest of the roads will be blocked and there probably won't be any shortage of guards at each of the blockades so it's either air or underground. Hmm I will have to look around for evacuation points. I just hope that they had some set up but first I will have to find some more weapons because I'm afraid what I've got isn't going to cut it." John said to himself as he headed back to the last turn-off he took and headed left and then north.

The first two streets he had passed looked the same but then it started to change slowly. Cars were wrecked and bodies were in the street. By the time he got to the fourth side street there were fires breaking out the windows in the buildings above him. It seemed not even the downpour helped to douse the flames.

Just then John hit a road block and could not go any further in the car. "Well it just keeps getting better don't it." He sarcastically remarked as he picked up his sword, got out of the car and sheathed the weapon.

John proceeded to climb over the cars to get to the otherside. After he was on the otherside of the blockage he looked around and took measure of his surroundings."Okay, it looks like I am back on Parade. Great I'm back right where I started. Alright, if I am not mistaken then there is a gun store on the corner of Flower and Central Street." He thought to himself as he headed up the road straight across from him.

He made it up a couple of streets before he heard moaning in the distance and stopped and waited to see where it was coming from. Just then a horde of the undead were stumbling toward him from further down the street in front of him.

"Shit. They are arm to arm across the street. There's no way I can take on that many, not now." He thought.

He looked over to his left and saw a relatively clear street and started running in that direction. He kept running and saw that the road turned northwest. After turning the bend he saw that there was a car stopped in the middle of the street further down. He didn't have time to pause and started running faster and jumped up on the hood. His momentum kept him running right over the roof and off the trunk into the street.

He looked around at his surroundings, trying to remember where he was at. "Okay, there's Bar Jack, So that means I am on Jack street. Hopefully that blockage will slow them down for a little bit." He said to himself.

He walked toward the bar and there was a fork in street. "Okay, the right path should lead me back to Fission Street and the zombie horde and the left path should be a bunch of side streets. Well side streets it is then." John thought as he walked down the road to the left.

He walked to the end of the street and walked up the road headed north. He kept going until he got to another intersection of side streets and looked down both ways to see scattered undead standing almost motionless. For some reason one looked in his direction, moaned and started shuffling toward him. This one's moaning alerted the others who also did the same. He kept walking forward to the end of the street. From here there were only roads leading left and right with a building in front of him.

He walked down the left road again and kept going until to his right it opened out into a wider street. "Okay, I think this is the end of Central, not much farther now." John thought to himself.

He walked down the street saw saw two more cars blocking the road. As he walked forward to climb over them they suddenly caught on fire. "Oh shit." John said as he ran back down the way he came. He managed to get behind the wall as the vehicles exploded.

He stepped from around the corner and looked at the blaze for a moment and continued down the path opposite from him. The next path to his right was a bit clearer. At the end of the street there was a wrecked bus flush against a building and a few cars blocking the road. It looked like the other door on the bus led back to Central. He opened the door and stepped into the bus. As he walked up the steps carefully and looked under what seats he could see and spied a couple of bodies and there was no movement so they were either passed out or dead in a manner of speaking, probably the latter. As John took each step carefully he scanned the bus looking for more bodies and anything that could possibly be of use.

He looked and found that someone had sent themselves to the hereafter before being resigned to the fate of being one of the undead. He carefully looked before picking up the gun and examined it."Hmm looks like a Browning HP nine millimeter, looks like eight rounds left. No harm in taking it, I know he wouldn't mind. Don't know if anyone will have more magnum rounds with any luck 9mm will be more common."

Just then two bodies started to crawl out from under the seats and started to stand up. John quickly drew his magnum, took aim and fired. As he turned around another zombie reached out and grabbed him. He managed to hold him at arms length and fire. The bus driver's body fell to the ground and John proceeded to step off of the bus and back onto Central street.

He looked around and found it quite strange that he had not seen any signs of movement, live or otherwise, especially with the explosion that was still burning just across from him. "Hmm maybe they have found something more to keep their attention for the moment." He said as he walked around the front of the bus and headed up Central.

He remembered that the police station was over to his right. "If I don't find anything at the gun store maybe I can look in the station for something. He continued up the street and over to the left he saw a black blazer parked haphazardly and sign above a building that read "Gun Shop Kendo".

"Well, I made it here in one piece and hopefully there is something still left inside." John thought to himself as he opened the door and walked inside.

"Who the fuck are you?" A man with a shotgun behind the counter asked. He had ear length black hair and it looked like he hadn't taken a shower awhile. He was wearing a white shirt with blood splotches scattered on it. He was a bit overweight and his blue jeans were held up by red suspenders.

"I'm just another human looking for something to keep me that way a little longer. Who are you?" John asked as he pulled the hood of the raincoat off of his head.

"I'm the owner of this little establishment. Robert Kendo is the name. Sorry about that, I thought you were one of those monsters." The man said coming out from behind the counter.

"It's alright man. So do you have anything left?" John asked.

"I don't have very much. I gave most of it out when I started to realize that something was wrong." Kendo replied.

"Damn, well the station is close by. I might have better luck searching there." John said.

"I wouldn't go there if I was you." Kendo replied.

"Why?" John asked.

"A lot of other people thought they would be safe at the station to and the zombies followed them. It's been under siege since this shit hit the fan." Kendo explained.

"Hmm, well I know I don't have enough ammo to deal with that right now." John said.

"What all do you have?" Kendo asked.

"I have a Magnum, a 9mm, and my longsword." John said as he held it up to show Kendo.

"A longsword?" Kendo asked with a confused look on his face.

"Hey man, you use what you can find." John replied.

"Hmm, well that is true." Kendo replied making sense out of it.

"Do you know if there are any evacuation points set up?" John asked.

"Yeah, I think they have one set up at the stadium southwest of here and one at the high school which is southeast of here." Kendo replied.

"It's untelling how long it will take to get either spot from here." John said with uneasiness.

"You don't mind some company do you?" Kendo asked.

"I don't mind but don't slow me down." John replied.

"Oh, just because I am a little overweight doesn't mean I can't carry it, besides I have something of use anyway." Kendo replied with a slight smirk on his face.

"Oh really? What is it?" John asked with curiosity.

"Come with me." Kendo said as he walked back around the counter and to the end behind the register.

Kendo popped his fist against the wall which popped open revealing are secret area. Inside looked like the ammo casing and gunpowder storage room.

"You said you didn't have anything left." John said.

"Well, I came back here to get stuff together out of my stash to try to get out of here and after looking at you and talking to for a minute, I figured you can handle yourself quite well." Kendo replied.

"By the looks of it you don't have anything made. How many rounds can you make?" John asked.

"Well I have enough 9mm casings to make fifty apiece, thirty shotgun rounds and probably fifteen magnum rounds." Kendo replied.

"Hmm, it's not much but I suppose we will make do." John said.

"Yeah, I had been working on making some rounds when people started trying to get into my shop. As it turns out they were some of those things walking around. After normal people started coming here I gave them everything I had made." Kendo explained.

"Maybe you should have saved some for yourself and your survival. You can't count on anyone else to save you." John thought to himself.

"Okay, I will get started on making the stuff. If you don't mind go and take a look at that map and based on where you have been maybe we can find a relatively safe route." Kendo said as he walked over to a large workbench with a bullet-making press and started to work.

"Alright, which place do you what to try first. The stadium or the high school. If we are going to what's closest then the high school is slightly closer but as I was running toward Fission street there was a pretty large zombie horde." John told Kendo still looking at the map.

"Hmm, that is a concern but there is also the possibility of there being one at the stadium too. It's a risk either way." Kendo said.

"Hmm, you have a point let's try the high school first. The reason I say that is they might be more inclined to save people there first because it's right in the middle of the residential district and they might try harder to save the children." John explained.

"That's good thinking. Can you remember any roadblocks through there?" Kendo asked.

"I haven't been down Ennerdale yet and like I said I couldn't get to Fission so I don't know." John said.

"Hmm, we will have to find a safe route around the station. Oh yeah here is those 9mm rounds now on to the shotgun rounds." Kendo said as he handed the rounds to John.

"Thanks. What shotgun do to have?" John asked as he took the rounds from Kendo and put them in on of the ammo pouches on his belt.

"Yeah, I've got an Ithaca M37 Western Custom." Kendo told him as he held it up.

"That's a nice gun." John replied.

"Oh yeah, she's a beaut. I got her out of my personal stash. I only kept her and this." Kendo said as he pulled a handgun out of a holster on his leg.

"Hey that's a really nice handgun. You mind if I take a look at it." John asked.

"Yeah, here you go." Kendo replied as he handed John the gun.

"Standard 9mm?" John asked as he held the gun and examined it. It was solid black with a silver trigger. It's grip was solid wood with a synthetic panel layered on top of it. On the synthetic panel was an embossed symbol of the S.T.A.R.S. Logo.

"Yep, I call her the Samurai Edge. She's perfectly balanced and there's not a shot she doesn't miss. My brother Joe and I were contracted by the police department to make a gun for their S.T.A.R.S. Squad and this is what we came up with." Kendo said.

"That's some fine craftsmanship. You guys did a good job. Speaking of S.T.A.R.S., has anyone seen them?" John asked as he handed the gun back to Kendo, who reholstered it.

"Nope, most of them were gone before this happened. Hey what kind of magnum rounds do you use?" Kendo asked.

"I like the hollow point rounds. Do you know what happened to them?" John asked.

"Well I don't know much but what I do know it was connected to that incident in the woods, back to them hollow points you like that will take them down huh?" Kendo asked.

"If I shoot then I either want to disable my target or kill them, okay that was the mansion that exploded in the Arklay Forest right?" John asked.

"Yep that's the one. All but one member of their Bravo team died and only three members of the Alpha squad made it out. They were all put on a leave of absence after that until the chief did his own investigation. After that I know of at least two that left the city." Kendo told John.

"Well then that means something was happening that they don't want anyone to know about." John said.

"There always is, I just hope it didn't have anything to do with all of this." Kendo said.

"It's probably bigger than what either one of us can understand right now." John thought to himself.

"Okay, I have finished all of the rounds and here is those magnum rounds. I was only able to make about fifteen." Kendo said as he handed them to John.

"It's all right, it's better than nothing. Thanks and I have been thinking about that route. Let's go behind the station on Flower and then go south on Warren, then it's just a short distance to the high school." John said as he took the rounds and stowed them away with his other magnum rounds.

"Okay then. Let's head out." Kendo said as he attached a shoulder strap to his shotgun and put it around his shoulder.

"Wait, we are going to need this." John said as he carefully tore the map off of the wall, folded it up and put in his back pocket.

They walked out of the room and Kendo shut the secret door behind them. They walked out of the door and started to their next to destination hoping for salvation.


	2. Chapter 2: The School

As they walked out of the gun store Kendo looked at his companion and said "Let's take the car. We'll get there faster."

John looked back to Kendo and replied "I'd rather not. It's maybe more dangerous and longer but we will also be forced to pay more attention to our surroundings and can find an escape quicker than were we in a vehicle.

"Hmm, it makes some sense but I still think we should take it." Kendo said.

"Be my guest, you travel with me as long as you want to. I force you to do nothing." John said as he started to walk just a little north and behind the station.

Kendo looked at his blazer and then back in the direction that John was headed. "Hey wait up!" He yelled as he struggled to catch up.

They walked along the back of the station, hearing the constant moaning of the undead around the station. They finally made it to Warren street, which was named for the former mayor of the city, Michael Warren. From here they headed south back to Ennerdale. John walked along the wall next to the station and leaned out to see a large crowd of zombies trying to get in the gate.

"Okay, There are a lot of them just outside of the gates. If we run across the street maybe we can get over there without them sensing us." John said.

"Okay, we going to go at the same time?" Kendo asked.

"No, I'll run across and when I give you the signal, you run." John explained.

"Alright, let's get a move on then." Kendo said.

John looked again and seeing it was clear, sprinted across the street and hid in a small alleyway. He drew his gun and made sure it was clear before holding two fingers up giving Kendo the signal to run. Kendo dashed across as quick as his body would allow him and luckily the undead did not see them.

"Okay, take a second to rest because we are going to head east from here to the next alley." John said as Kendo leaned against the wall.

When Kendo had rested and was ready to continue, John sent Kendo first with John bringing up the rear. A couple of zombies near the gate saw them, let out a moan and started to move toward them.

"Go, go, we are about to have company." John said as he rushed Kendo to the alley.

As John turned the corner to see ten of the undead in a group. They looked up in the duo's direction and started to moan.

"We already have some." Kendo said.

As Kendo raised his shotgun to fire John put his hand on the top of it and said "Wait, watch for anymore coming down the street and let me know. We don't want to attract the attention of the rest of the horde."

John holstered his gun and drew his sword. He walked forward a few steps and thrust the sword into one's head and slashed out with a large portion of it's brain and head coming with it. He readied himself and slashed through three walking side-by-side with the torsos falling to the ground. John swung again and cut the head of two more clean off. John made another thrust into one's head taking out the one behind it as well. The last continued to come at John and he put it down with a diagonal slash. The three torsos that had fallen to the ground started to move crawling along toward them.

"Damn, look at that. They just keep coming, even after being separated from their legs." Kendo said looking away from his post for a brief moment.

John walked over without uttering a word and brought the sword down on each one's head and then walked over the one with the diagonal slash and finished it off.

"Okay, let's go. It's not much farther now." John said as he sheathed the weapon and looked back to Kendo.

"You didn't just find that sword did you?" Kendo asked.

"You are a traveling companion, nothing more. I never asked you about your background aside from who you were and I would appreciate the same." John said continuing on.

"Okay then. I won't pester you anymore about it." Kendo said.

"Good, I would prefer it that way." John said.

They walked to the end of the alley and turned left. The school was straight across from them on the otherside of the street. John leaned against the building to his right and peeked around the corner.

"Okay, there are a few but not as many as there were at the station. We could probably take a slower pace now." John said.

John led the way across the street and toward the entrance to the L-shaped school. The football field was right on the corner of the street. On the field was a helicopter with other survivors on it. The blades were spinning as it was getting ready to take off.

"Hurry, Kendo. It's getting ready to leave! Let's go!" John yelled back as Kendo trailed behind him.

John started running and hit the fence. He started to run to his right toward a path that led to the parking lot and an entrance to the field nearby. He made it to the gate and ran though just as the chopper started to lift off.

"Hey wait! We are humans! Stop!" John yelled trying to get their attention. He could see survivors looking out of the chopper down at him as was passing over him.

Kendo finally caught up and looked at the chopper until it was no longer in view.

"Well, I suppose we should just go back and try to go to the stadium then?" Kendo asked looking at John.

"Let's look around here and see if we can find anything useful." John said as the started walking back toward the gate.

"What could we possibly find here of use?" Kendo asked turning in John's direction.

"There is the possibility of finding you a melee weapon here. Something a tad quieter than your gun." John said.

"These are the only weapons I need. They can take can of anything that comes our way." Kendo said with a smile.

John stopped and turned to face Kendo. "What about when you run out of ammo and I will also say that silence is better than an instant kill at times. On that note go to the gym and try to find an aluminum baseball bat, if you can't find one a wooden one will do. If you still can't find one, try to find something that won't break easily."

"I thought that you wouldn't force me to do anything?" Kendo said.

"I won't, but if you don't come back with a melee weapon then we part ways. You choose." John yelled back to Kendo as he walked out of the gate and was looking straight at the school.

John walked to the main entrance of the school and opened the large double doors. Inside on the left wall were trophies from the wins that the schools soccer team had won. On the right side was the office and nurse's station. He drew his gun, opened the door slowly and walked inside. Seeing that it was clear the walked back to the nurse's office and started to look though the office for some first aid supplies. He opened the umbrella emblazoned first-aid box on the wall and got out two rolls of gauze, some alcohol pads, the needles, some band-aids and a bottle of alcohol. He took off the belt, set it and the gun on the desk and opened the back pouch. After putting the supplies inside, he zipped it back up, put the belt back on and grabbed his gun.

"Okay, One more place to check." John thought as the walked back though the office and out to where he started.

He walked around the corner toward the classrooms saw off the right a map of the school. He started looking over the map.

"Ah ha." John said as he found what he was looking for and walked to the stairwell on the northern end of the building. He headed up to the third floor. He opened the door and looked down the hall. It was clear and he started down the hallway searching for his destination.

He kept a steady pace and almost passed the room he was looking for before he realized what the was. He looked in the door and saw the chemistry lab. He opened the door and walked back to a wooden door at the back of the room. He jiggled the doorknob but it didn't budge. He holstered his gun, rammed his shoulder into the door while holding on the the knob to keep it from breaking anything behind the door.

Inside was one of the undead. John backed out of the small room into the lab and drew his sword. He kept backing up far enough to lure it out into the open. He cut the zombies' head clean off of it's body and sheathed his sword. He stepped over the body and back into the room. Inside were various chemicals and reagents. John perused the selection and picked out a few chemicals and took them out into the classroom. He went back inside to retrieve some test tubes and eyeglasses and got to work.

After about thirty minutes, He finished what he wanted to. He went back into the small room and came out with some small cork tops. He put them in the tops of the test tubes and put the vials into a small pocket made for grenades on his belt. He patted them gently.

"Thank you, Joesph." John thought to himself as he walked out of the classroom to go and find Kendo.

Meanwhile, As Kendo went to the gym to find a melee weapon.

"Dammit, I still don't see why he wants me to find a melee weapon. My guns can handle anything and what was up with him being such a hardass." Kendo grumbled to himself.

After watching John head toward the school, Kendo went out of the same gate, headed south to the end of the chainlink fence and east to a large building separate from the main building. Kendo knew that this was the gym because his nephew had been on the soccer team.

Kendo walked to the door and pulled on the handle. He looked around to see any sign of life because he felt like he was about to commit a crime. Not seeing anyone, he took the butt of his shotgun and broke the window in the door. He reached inside, pushed the handle in his direction and opened the door. He walked inside the building, walking slowly and searching for any zombies that may have made it inside.

He walked past a trophy case showing of pictures of the teams from past classes and stopped to look at the most recent.

"Mikey, I am glad you and your dad are safe." Kendo said.

Kendo was comforted by the fact that his brother Joe and his family had decided to go to the beach for a couple of months after Joe's son, Michael, had graduated. They were able to go because the Kendo brothers had an extremely good year with all of the money they raked in with the approval of the Samurai Edge by the Raccoon Police Department. Word was that even more S.T.A.R.S. Units around the country were considering using it as their official sidearm which would rake them in even money and on top of that national notoriety.

He walked down and opened one of the sets of double doors of the right side of the case. He walked into the large gym and basketball hoops on both sides of the gym with a large picture of the team's mascot, Buzzy The Bee, underneath the laminated floor. He walked to the other end of the gym and opened the doors that led down to the boy's locker room. He walked down the flight of steps and came to the end of the room. The went down the hall to his right slowly jiggling the doorknobs on the left which would not budge, and continued on.

After he got to the end of this hallway he turned right and heard showers running over the wall to his left. He turned the corner and didn't see anything on the benches down the hall. Kendo opened the door on his right and saw that it was the laundry room for the boy's side of the gym. He continued up the hallway to opened the next door. Inside the room it was pitch black. He reached over and felt around for the light switch revealing that this was the equipment storage room. He walked further inside looking for a baseball bat, preferably metal, like John had recommended.

To his right was a cart with basketballs and on his left was a shelf that stored all of the team's baseballs and extra mitts. He walked further down to find a rack full of both aluminum and wooden baseball bats.

He put his shotgun strap on his shoulder and took one of the metal bats down off of the rack. He swung it a couple of times and then heard moaning behind him. He turned around to see one of the undead behind him with it's arms outstretched dressed in a towel.

"Okay, lets see how this melee thing works out." Kendo said as he raised the bat ready to swing.

The zombie got within his range and Kendo swung with all of his might. The creature's head went flying out of the door and Kendo stood there for a second looking at the head and would have stood there longer if the headless corpse had not tried to grab him. He took the end of the bat and shoved it into the torso of his assailant and pushed it away. After he managed to get the corpse off of him it fell to the ground, dead again. He walked over to the head to see that it's was a teenager's head and couldn't help but feel sorry for it as it batted it's eyes twice and finally ceased it's weak moans.

"I really am glad you are gone Mikey, because I don't now if I would have been able to do this to you." Kendo said.

He got up and walked to the end of the wall, peeked around the corner and saw that there was a large opening in the wall at the end. He walked slowly down the wall to the end and saw that it was the boy's shower. The water was running from all of the showers and in the corner were three zombies feeding on a barely discernible teen's corpse. They had long since cleaned out the abdomen and were working on the arms and pulling all of the skin off of the head.

They continued eating and then one looked up to see Kendo, who was almost petrified by the sight, and started moaning. The first one that had noticed him got up and started walking in his direction. The other two looked in his direction and also started to rise to their feet and shuffle toward there next meal. Kendo stood there motionless and as a tear dropped from his eye he snapped back to consciousness. He realized where he was and started swinging at the zombies. He hit the first one in the head and knocked it down. He hit the next one over the head, caving in the zombie's head. He swung at the last one's torso knocking clean off and back against the wall.

Kendo walked over to the first one that he had knocked down and gave it two hard swipes to the head to make sure it wouldn't get back up. The corpse that he had knocked against the wall was already crawling back toward him. He raised the bat high up in the air and hit the zombie's head until you almost couldn't tell what it was anymore. He stopped and composed himself and walked out of the shower and back down the hall from where he had come. He almost ran to the end and hit the door going out. He breathed the air, thinking that it was the best he had ever breathed even with the smell of the undead and smoke wafting though the air.

"Okay, I've got a fucking melee weapon. Now to find Mr. Hardass and get out of here." Kendo thought to him himself.

He walked from the gym to the closest entrance to the school and it was a side entrance normally used for escaping in case of fire. He looked inside and didn't see anything. He broke the window with the bat, reached inside and opened the door. He walked inside and continued past some classrooms. He reached the end of the hall and turned left. He continued down the hall looking in the classrooms trying to find John which wasn't the easiest task with the lights flickering.

"I sure hope he isn't dead and I am just wasting my time." Kendo thought to himself.

He passed a few more doors and he heard a slight sound like a clicking sound, It reminded him of a giant bug. He looked behind him and didn't see anything and continued on. I managed to make five or six more steps and he heard it again, this time it was longer and continued for a few seconds even after he had stopped.

"Oh, shit." Kendo said as he started running.

The clicking sound started going at full speed toward Kendo. He figured it was coming from up in the ceiling tiles. He ran for about a minute when he realized he was not going to be able to get away. He threw his bat at the tiles and a leg popped down and then quickly retreated back into the ceiling. He took the shotgun off of his shoulder and fired a shot. The tiles where he fired the shot fell to the floor in pieces. He pumped it and fired again at some tiles closer to him. Just as he pumped it again and brought the gun up to fire, the tile above his head fell out and hit him on the head. As he has trying to get his composure and reached to grab his dropped gun, two arms with claws on the end came down out of the hole above him and grabbed him up.

"What the fuck is this shit!" Kendo yelled.

The creature opened it's maw which consisted of an upper jaw and two mandibles that resembled a spider's fangs but were turned upward. As it hissed the tendrils hanging out of it's mouth were violently shaking. As it was about to plunge it jaws into Kendo's head when from behind it a shot rang out. The creature dropped it's prey to the floor as it let out a loud shriek in pain and tried to grab at it's lower back. Kendo sat there for a minute until he heard someone yelling from down the hall behind the creature.

"Move Kendo! Get the hell out of there!" The voice said.

Kendo got up and started to run toward the voice. As he got closer he managed to see who it was. It was John. Kendo felt a rush of relief come over him until he felt the rush of a bullet fly past his head. He ducked down fearing another one would fly over.

"Get the fuck down here! I'm not going to hit you!" John yelled at him.

Kendo had his doubts but got up and started running again. Another shot flew by his head but this time he kept running. He heard the creature still screeching. The next sound he heard was a thump fall to the ground and the screeching stop. He stopped and looked at the body laying in the floor.

"You alright?" John asked as he came up behind Kendo.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm all right. Thanks man." Kendo said breathless.

"Wait, you have a couple of blood marks on the backs of your shoulders. We are going to have to take care of that before you lose too much blood. Take off your shirt." John said gruffly.

Kendo took the suspenders off of his shoulders pain running though his arms now that John had brought attention to the wound. John reached in the first-aid pack and got out the bottle of alcohol, one roll of gauze, and four band-aids. Kendo took off his shirt and held it in his hands while John started to patch up the wounds.

"How bad is it?" Kendo asked.

"Not too bad, any deeper and you would have needed stitches, but you'll be okay." John said as he took off the top of the bottle.

He poured it on the wound and Kendo jumped.

"Hey, be careful will ya." Kendo said as he turned his head to see John out of the corner of his eye.

"Listen, I'm not going to baby you. It's not that bad, be thankful it wasn't worse." John quickly replied.

"Yeah, well it still hurts." Kendo said.

John tore into the package of gauze and ripped it midway.

"Here, hold this for a second." He said as he handed the gauze to Kendo.

He wrapped it tightly around Kendo's arm and took two of the band-aids and tape it to Kendo's skin. He did the same for the other arm but Kendo seemed more receptive when John poured the alcohol on the other wound.

"Okay, it's done put your shirt back on." John said when he was finished and stowed away the rest of the supplies.

Kendo put his shirt back on and slipped his suspenders back on. He followed John down to the creature's corpse and looked at it. It was brown but it looked like it's skin was ripping was it's muscles bulged out. It also had really fine hairs on it's body and another one of it's features was it had a total of six limbs, four arms and two legs.

"What the hell is it?" Kendo asked as he looked down on the creature.

"Hmm, well it looks like some sort of insect, maybe a flea of some sort." John said as he was crouched down over the creature.

"What makes you think that it's a flea?" Kendo asked as he walked over to the creature's body.

"Well, look here. See how the bottom legs are the thickest? A flea uses it's bottom legs to jump as high as it does, so it's untelling how high and far one of these can jump. It's also got these really fine hairs all over it's body. The biggest change is these large mandibles and these claws on the arms which look like it would allow it to catch much bigger prey, you for instance." John explained.

"I've never seen any kind of flea like that before." Kendo said as he walked over to get his shotgun and ball bat.

"Neither have I." John said.

"Could it be biological warfare?" John asked himself silently.

"Hey, look at what I found." Kendo said trying to get his attention.

John looked up and saw Kendo's metal ball bat.

"Hey, I see you found one. Good job. Did it help you out any?" John asked.

"Yeah. It helped out a lot actually." Kendo said rubbing the back of the head in embarrassment.

"See I told you it helps." John said.

Then they heard another clicking sound in the ceiling.

"Great, It's another one of those things." Kendo said as he readied himself to run.

"Wait." John said as he stopped Kendo.

This one was more bold than it's brother as it jumped down out of one the holes furthest away from them.

John aimed his gun and fired at the creature. It jumped out of the way but John already had it in his sights again. This shot hit and the monster lied on the ground, writhing in pain. John opened the compartment on the front of his belt for grenades and pulled out a little purple vial. He threw it near the creature and the vial busted, exploding and finishing off the creature.

"What was that stuff?" Kendo asked John with jaw dropped down.

"It's just a little mixture of chemicals. Just trust it can kill almost anything in our way." John said.

"How in the hell do you know all of this stuff?" Kendo asked.

"I read, a lot." John said.

"So you learned how to shoot a gun, swing that sword and make explosives all from books?" Kendo asking with a doubting look on his face.

"Yep, I learned the basics then switched to actual practice." John replied.

"Okay, whatever." Kendo said.

"Believe whatever you choose let's head to the office." John said.

"Why?" Kendo asked as he started following John.

"Why? Because we need a relatively safe place to come up with a strategy before anymore of those things show up, so let's move it." John said as he headed down the hall.

"I don't think there are anymore. We would have seen them by now, besides I think they might be afraid of you." Kendo said.

"I think not. If they are related to fleas then there are more because fleas live in packs and rarely ever do you see one without there being more. I also don't think they really care if I have explosives or not because we run into ten or more that's it." John said without missing a beat.

"Do you have to ruin every compliment?" Kendo said as he swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Sorry, I just try to think realistically." John said as he turned to face Kendo.

They made their way to the office without encounter. After making it inside of the office John took the map out of his back pocket and started to examine it.

"Okay, we can't head back down Ennerdale because of the horde and some may have followed us here. We have been extremely lucky to not have used many rounds so far, so I say we take the long way around and go down Fox and then west on Parade and then north on Ema back to Ennerdale and it's just a short distance from there to the stadium." John explained.

"Okay, I just hope we get to the chopper in time." Kendo said.

"We might be able to." John said as he folded up the map and put it back in his pocket.

As they headed out of the office, there was another clicking noise. This one was a bit different than the previous ones as it sounded more calculated.

John and Kendo stood outside the office watching as one ceiling tile was jiggling around, then a couple of tiles forward popped out and with a creature that resembled the others but was different. It had muscles bulging like the others but this one had parts of an exoskeleton as well. The arms and it color were the same but it lacked the fine hairs of it's cousins. The head was also different as it had to heads and the large mandibles were replaced by tentacles coming out of both of it's heads.

"What the fuck?" Kendo stood there in a horrid amazement at the sight in front of him.

The creature reared up of it's back legs and started to sound like it was trying to clear it's throat. Out of one of it's mouths came spewing forth a big green ball of goo headed in Kendo's direction. Kendo still stood there speechless even the goo was flying closer. Just as it was about to hit the man in the face Kendo felt someone tackle him and they fell into the office. Kendo came to his senses and saw that it was John who tackled him.

John got up off Kendo and peeked out of the door to see the creature still standing there. It started to clear it's throat again and he quickly ducked his head back inside. The spit flew into the office and the goo hit the secretary's desk. It started to sizzle and slowly started to melt away. John looked back out to see it again and fired a couple of shots, of which both missed. The creature fell back to the ground and leaped to the front of the office and started to look down on John. He brought up his magnum to fire but the monster promptly knocked it out of his hands.

John made a sneer ready to tackle the creature and try to stun it but as he readied himself to do so the creature's head exploded. John looked back and saw Kendo with his shotgun aimed at where the creature's head used to be.

"Glad to see you join us." John said.

"Sorry, I just blanked out." Kendo said as he lowered his gun.

"You need to start paying more attention. Neither one of us wants to die just yet. John said as he walked over to get his gun.

"It's just I never expected things like these to exist." Kendo said.

"Neither did I but we have to adjust and think on the fly because these things won't allow us to think before we make our next move." John said as he holstered his gun.

"Alright, I will pay more attention." Kendo said apologetically.

"Come on, let's get out of here and head to the stadium." John said as he opened the door to go outside.


End file.
